Destroy the Lottery

Here's an idea our esteemed legislators and elected officials should consider, as we ponder ways to cut costs in government and make government more accountable to the citizens that it represents.

Let's get rid of the Hoosier Lottery.

No, I do not mean sell it off to a private company.

No, I don't mean give a vendor a long-term lease on running the operations while retaining some control over the overall operations.

I mean, let's just get rid of it altogether.

The Hoosier Lottery has the typical corruption that Hoosiers have come to expect from our state government. WTHR reporter Bob Segall broke the news of the Hoosier Lottery offices being moved into a new, expensive space that could cost more than $2 million in rent a year compared to the old space. Subsequent investigations from Segall revealed that the Lottery Commission didn't even bother reviewing the extravagant purchases being made for the new space. Eventually, the director of the Hoosier Lottery resigned.

An analysis from The Indianapolis Star, backed by academic studies and information requests from state government as well as their own research, revealed that Hoosier Lottery players 67% of those playing have household incomes less than $50,000 a year. Comparing that data with census data, they found that the lower an area's per capita income, the more lottery retailers it has. The analysis also discovered that Lottery revenue is disproportional received by higher income counties based on the value of vehicle registration. So counties with a lot of expensive cars and RVs will get a lot of money, whereas counties with used cars won't get as much. In other words, neighborhoods with a lot of poor (And let's just say it, also a lot of minorities) are subsidizing the rich (mostly white) neighborhoods.

On top of all that, the Hoosier Lottery has launched a new, deceptive ad campaign that sinks even lower than where it has previously gone. A private vendor has been charged with operations in hopes that revenue will increase, so the new ad campaign talks about life goals that can be achieved with lottery winnings, such as paying for a child's college. Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully further critiques the ad campaign, saying it is "preying on emotions in a downright despicable way."

So why not just end the lottery altogether?

People might say that'll create a revenue gap in state budgeting. I don't buy it.

In economics, one's income becomes discretionary income after taxes paid and after all necessary bills are paid. What is left over is discretionary. And, for better or for worse, most people are going to spend their discretionary income rather than save it. Just because they won't be playing the Hoosier Lottery doesn't mean that won't go into the economy somehow. They're going to go out and spend it, and local and state governments will collect the sales tax. And if they choose to invest it again, good for them. I'd be fine with a slight drop in revenue if that means more people are stashing away money in their savings account or 401(k).

Governor Pence has taken a valiant stand against expanding gambling in the state. He should take it one step further and use the bully pulpit to put us on a path so that the state of Indiana will be out of the state-sponsored gambling institution known as the Hoosier Lottery.

Evans' Party Switch Still Raises Eyebrows

Councilor José Evans switched from being a Democrat to a Republican. Evans, who represents District 1 on the northwest side of Indianapolis, has narrowed the Democratic majority from 16-13 to 15-14. Evans held a press conference with state GOP Chairman Eric Hoclomb and Marion County GOP Chairman Kyle Walker announcing the party switch. At the press conference, it was also said that Evans was going to be able to meet with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus later in the day.

In an exclusive interview with radio personality Amos Brown, Evans doesn't shed a lot of light on why he switched or what pushed him to the Republican side of the isle.

Evans' repeatedly says he'll "have a seat at the table", but on what? Evans recently voted against several charter school expansions on the council, all of which passed with wide support from councilors. Is he going to have a seat at the table with education reform both at the city and state level which he has very different views on then most elected GOP officials?

Will he "have a seat at the table" in labor issues? Council Democrats were heavily supported by organized labor in 2007, and it is one of the few larger issues that does come into municipal governance with so many facilities in the downtown area that use low wage labor to support the sports and convention industries. Several proposals to support hotel workers in the downtown area have been shot down, either by past GOP council majorities or by the veto pen of Mayor Greg Ballard. In the larger landscape of Indiana, a group of pro-labor Republicans called the Lunchpail Republicans were largely unsuccessful in primarying legislatures who were proponents of the 2011 Right-to-Work law.

Will he "have a seat at the table" when it comes to government reform in Marion County? Evans was very non-descript on how he felt of the Indiana legislature's proposed consolidation, which would give Acting Mayor Ryan Vaughn unprecedented control over the budget of the county without any meaningful legislative oversight. And a provision in the Senate version of the bill would take away the At-Large council seats in time for the 2019 municipal elections.

An issue he cited at both the GOP press conference and in the Brown interview was the Meadows TIF. The Meadows, which is the neighborhood roughly around 38th and Keystone, was proposed to be put into a TIF so that development, specifically a grocery store, could be put in the area. The initial measure was sponsored by Councilor Steve Talley and Councilor Christine Scales. The TIF did not have support from either the Democrats or Republicans and never made it to a vote on the full council or committees. But Evans still could've co-sponsored the proposal, but he didn't. The substitute proposal for the Meadows, which would've taken $3 million in RebuildIndy funds to support a grocery store and other projects, also didn't have Evans as a co-sponsor.

During Brown's interview, he said that if Broad Ripple gets a TIF, then so should the Meadows. He voted for the so-called Midtown TIF.

I understand that Evans doesn't want to air "dirty laundry" from Democratic caucuses. And because of that, perhaps we'll never really know why Evans' has these issues he's super passionate about, but seemingly never got his voice heard on, or why he never made any public declaration of them.

I would like to revise one stance I took on Twitter the other day. I don't think this is a purely political decision made by Evans. I have my doubts that he'll actually run for re-election. It just leaves me scratching my head and I wonder who does this benefit, and I really don't see any individual or group benefiting from this party-switch in either the short or long term.

How Does Drug Testing TANF Recipients Create Jobs?

The Indiana General Assembly is in session. Whenever state legislative assemblies are in session, there seems to be a contest over who can be the absolute worst at legislating, and our Assembly certainly gives the others a run for the money.

The Indiana House passed something that died off last year. They overwhelmingly passed a bill that would randomly test recipients of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) for illegal drugs. If they fail the drug test, they can continue receiving benefits while getting treatment. According to the IBJ, cost of treatment would be left to the TANF recipient.

As I wrote two years ago, similar efforts in Florida showed that TANF recipients had a lower-than-average rate of illegal drug usage than the general population. Florida also cost a lot more than any money that was saved. And the legality of the Florida law has been put in question, with a US Court of Appeals saying that no "special need" has been shown to justify suspending 4th Amendment rights for TANF recipients.

For an assembly that is supposed to be all about jobs, education, and the economy, I fail to see how legislation that specifically is designed to punish poor people for being poor advances any of those goals. I also don't see why this is allowed to proceed when many other groups of people who get money from the State of Indiana one way or another are not given similar treatment.

Why is University of Phoenix recruiting at Ivy Tech?

The words "University of Phoenix" usually aren't followed by anything worthy of praise in the academic world. It might be that their accreditation is in jeopardy, or that their recruiters used strong-arm sales tactics to get students, or that they're closing 115 locations. The state of California has even cut off state-based financial aid to the University of Phoenix, and many other for-profit educational organizations, because of their low graduation rate and high default rates.

So why is Ivy Tech, an institution set up for Hoosiers to get into (or in my case, back into) higher learning, allowing a paper mill like University of Phoenix to set up shop and recruit students on campus? I saw it at the Lawrence campus this morning.

It is not uncommon for any number of trade schools, universities, and even employers to set up booths at any number of colleges or universities, or to attend academic fairs. Especially at a college that has a lot of people that will need to transfer to a university at some point to finish their degree.

But by letting them onto the campus, Ivy Tech is lending some amount of credibility to them. Credibility that they neither have earned or deserve. They exist only to leech off of government loans and grants to give their shareholders a profit.

Council Complications

Much has been written about the newest member of the Indianapolis City-County Council, Jefferson Shreve. Shreve has had his residency question, won a GOP caucus vote to fill in for the remainder of Jeff Cardwell's term. Cardwell has stepped down from the council to serve in Governor Mike Pence's administration.

Much has been written about Shreve, and the political establishment in this town has lined up defending Shreve. Their defense is that Jeff Cardwell is an honorable man, and by proxy, Shreve is honorable as well and how dare you even question what happened.

I call bullpucky.

I don't know Cardwell personally, but I have no doubt to believe that he isn't a decent, honorable man. I'm sure he'll be a great asset in Governor Pence's administration.

But that doesn't mean that one can't criticize the wheeling and dealing politics that go on in these precinct committee caucus meetings. Just because Cardwell is an honorable, decent man doesn't mean everyone surrounding him is.

And finally, I'd like to write about the man Shreve beat in the GOP caucus, Michael Kalscheur.

Kalscheur is a long-time south side GOP activist. He ran as one of four At-Large council candidates in the 2011 municipal election.

During that election, I sat down with him and had lunch. Though we were candidates running under different parties and had disagreed on some issues, we had a frank discussion about the state of politics in this city. He expressed deep reservation about some of the taxes that had been passed under Mayor Ballard's first term, and said told me he'd be against any tax increases that came before the council.

Throughout the campaign, we kept in touch via e-mail and social media. I found him to be a decent and honorable man and thought he'd be an asset to the Republican caucus.

My final thoughts on this matter are I can only hope that Councilor Shreve will be as effective, independent, and hard-working as a councilor that I believe Michael would've been.

Snow-Day Tully Column Close to Recognizing Real Problem

The Indianapolis Star's Matthew Tully recently penned a column that criticized the city's efforts, or lack thereof, of plowing and salting the city's many "side" streets. According to Tully's Twitter feed, he has gotten push back from political supports of Mayor Greg Ballard (R), including Marion County GOP Chairman Kyle Walker. Tully talks about the minimal cost of this problem while the benefits to it are obvious.

And I think Tully is right in this area. In my neighborhood in Pike Township, I was absolutely shocked that my streets were plowed and largely assumed that other neighborhoods experienced the same thing. Later, I learned that the neighborhood association paid for private plow operators to come out and plow and salt the streets.

On New Years Eve, I visited Broad Ripple and was stunned at how bad the neighborhood streets are while Kessler and College were cleared up just fine. Because there was a very light snow fall that day, the Broad Ripple neighborhood streets were essentially a thin lair of ice topped by a thin layer of fresh snow.

Tully's column ends with this

Clearing the streets is a basic service, not a luxury.
In many cities, the ice left behind would be a political scandal. But here, defenders argue that a road not cleared is valuable money saved, a worthy tradeoff in a tax-averse region. To those, I suggest reading up on the city's decision to once again write the Pacers a check for $10 million. Or to give huge pay raises to top officials in the mayor's office. Or to upgrade the convention center.
When this city wants to find the money it needs, it finds it. So find it -- yes, even if that means telling those of us who live here that we will have to chip in a little more.

Tully comes very close to getting to the heart of the problem. What this city and its leadership has isn't a revenue problem. When there is something they want to spend it on, they find the money. They've found the money for God knows how many re-districting efforts. They've found the money to doll out bonuses to some of Mayor Ballard Acting Mayor Vaughn and his closest friends. They've found the money to subsidize parking garages and all kinds of construction projects the city deems worthy of subsidization. They've found tens of millions of dollars to directly subsidize the Pacers, as well as money to give them a fancy new scoreboard.

This isn't a revenue problem. This city has more money coming into it now than it ever has. It is a spending priorities problem. It isn't that we don't have the money. It is that our leaders are blowing it on what they deem to be priorities.

Tully's outrage on the state of the city's winter preparedness is correct. But the target shouldn't be more tax revenue. The target should be irresponsible spending and diverting that spending to something that benefits the entire community, not a connected few.

Related posts:
Indy Democrat weighs in.
Advance Indiana's thoughts

It Still Doesn't Feel Right: RIP Bush Stadium 1931-1996

I don't remember what the reason was that I was on 16th street a few days ago, but it was the first time I had driven by the former Bush Stadium and I couldn't still see the stands, the old field, and all that still made it seem like a baseball stadium. Yes, a stadium that had long past its heyday, but a stadium nonetheless.

And this is probably the first time I've been visibly forced to confront the reality: Bush Stadium is no longer going to be Bush Stadium, the former home of the Indianapolis Indians. It isn't going to be revitalized into an athletic venue for other uses. It isn't going to be rebuilt into a memorial museum that'll show the rich history baseball and sports has with this city.

It isn't going to be any of those things that might be a proper spiritual successor of Bush Stadiums.

It is going to a be a bunch of apartments.

And I'm sure the people developing the apartments are good folks and are respecting the history and whatnot.

And I know that, considering the facts at hand, apartments are probably the best bet for this part of town at this point of time. The area has businesses, it is close to downtown. But there isn't a whole lot of properties up for rent, and this provides an avenue for people to move to the west side and be close to downtown without having to pay downtown prices. 

But as a long-time resident of the northwest side of town, this still doesn't feel right.

As a kid, I was never really into sports, probably to my dad's and grandfather's disappointment. To this day, I still can't even tell you what constitutes a first down. The fact that I used a word like "constitutes" when talking about football probably tells you how much I know about sports in general. And whenever my dad or grandfather did take me to any type of sport events, they'd ask me questions like "Do you know who is winning?" and I'd NEVER know the answer.

But I did like food. Specifically, I liked the food at Bush Stadium during Indians' games. The hot dogs, the pizza, the huge sodas (remember when 32oz sodas were the large size and not small????). And during the warmer months, we got to see a fireworks show. And it was always a really big one on the 4th of July.

I remember one year, my dad and I tried to get into the 4th of July game but they were sold out. So we drove to one of the parking lots surrounding the stadium, and parked near a food-stand. I don't remember if we listened in on the radio, or if it was on television, or if we just sat outside for an hour and listened to the crowd cheered.

But what I do remember is seeing the fireworks just as well, maybe even better, as those in the stadium. In fact, quite a bit better, because I remember some of the sparks actually landing in the parking lot themselves!

As a kid, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

And now, as an adult who has some type of grasp on what makes this community and this city tick...wow, a stadium on the west side of town sounds like the coolest idea ever.

A sports stadium outside of downtown? Without a bunch of bars for people to go get drunk at before/during/after the game? Without a bunch of hotels around? And could you imagine come Carmelites having to drive through the west side, and if they wanted to enjoy a post-game drink, the nearest bar is The Recovery Room and not some swanky expensive thing connected to the JW Marriott?

But outside of that, I started to think about the benefits of having Bush Stadium. What if it had stayed? Maybe if it got some of the same push that "The Fieldhouse" (I seriously do hate that new name) and Lucas Oil got, we'd see some of the success downtown has gotten and it'd be helping out those outside of the Mile Square. Maybe promotions could've been done to drive up use of the nearby White River Trail and that could drive up use of the Trail. Maybe that would mean resources would be diverted to the Trail and making it a bit better and more usable rather than always by-default dumping beautification projects onto The Monon?

There's a lot of What If's that surround the end of Bush Stadium. But if the Powers-That-Be want to develop the entire community, and not just one or two sections of it, we need to think big. Bush Stadium, back in the 1930s, was a big idea. Maybe we need something else like it today.

And maybe you could put it in an area that could really use the development.